Question

I have a dropdown labeled “amenities[]” and it’s an array. When I use CodeIgniter’s form_validation, I want to re-populate it properly using set_value, but I’m not able to. Anyone have any input on this?

Answer 1

Looking at the source for Codeignitor 1.7.2 the set_value implementation is:

/**
 * Get the value from a form
 *
 * Permits you to repopulate a form field with the value it was submitted
 * with, or, if that value doesn't exist, with the default
 *
 * @access  public
 * @param   string  the field name
 * @param   string
 * @return  void
 */ 
function set_value($field = '', $default = '')
{
    if ( ! isset($this->_field_data[$field]))
    {
        return $default;
    }

    return $this->_field_data[$field]['postdata'];
}

Note it does not support arrays. On the other hand Codeignitor’s set_select does indeed support arrays:

// --------------------------------------------------------------------

/**
 * Set Select
 *
 * Enables pull-down lists to be set to the value the user
 * selected in the event of an error
 *
 * @access  public
 * @param   string
 * @param   string
 * @return  string
 */ 
function set_select($field = '', $value = '', $default = FALSE)
{       
    if ( ! isset($this->_field_data[$field]) OR ! isset($this->_field_data[$field]['postdata']))
    {
        if ($default === TRUE AND count($this->_field_data) === 0)
        {
            return ' selected="selected"';
        }
        return '';
    }

    $field = $this->_field_data[$field]['postdata'];

    if (is_array($field))
    {
        if ( ! in_array($value, $field))
        {
            return '';
        }
    }
    else
    {
        if (($field == '' OR $value == '') OR ($field != $value))
        {
            return '';
        }
    }

    return ' selected="selected"';
}